'Severest' punishment urged to fight protests

Borzou Daragahi, Tribune NewspapersCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A senior cleric who is close to Iran's supreme leader said in a Friday sermon that anyone who engaged in violence in protests over alleged fraud in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should receive the "severest of punishments," according to state broadcasting.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a confidant of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the unsanctioned public gatherings as being against Islamic law.

In the sermon, he described anyone taking part in "destructive acts" as muharib, enemies of God whose annihilation by true believers is religiously permitted.

"Anyone who takes up arms, be it guns or knives, is a muharib and Islam has said that muharib should receive the severest of the punishments," said Khatami. He shares a last name with a popular reformist former president but has opposite political views.

Khatami did not directly equate peaceful protesters with rioters, but most observers say that distinction may be lost on the club-wielding pro-government Basiji and Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilantes who allegedly have been beating demonstrators.

Instead, the cleric thanked the Basiji forces for their help in quelling unrest. Khamenei last week appeared to give such militiamen sanction to crack down on protesters, sparking fiery riots through central Tehran the following day.

Khatami also urged the courts to come down hard on those arrested in connection with the protests.

"I call on officials of the judicial branch to deal severely and ruthlessly with the leaders of the agitations whose fodder comes from America and Israel so that everyone learns a lesson from it," he said.

Across Iran on Friday, small groups of people released green and black balloons in symbolic acts of protest meant to honor opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi as well as those killed in the election aftermath.

Most Iran experts regard the results of the June 12 election, which Ahmadinejad claimed to have won in a landslide, as suspicious.

Western officials and the United Nations have decried a broad crackdown on dissidents and activists. Diplomats at a meeting of wealthy Group of 8 countries in Italy issued a statement condemning the violence in Iran.

Russia, often a backer of Iran, noted some unease about the Iranian government's reaction to the unrest.

"Naturally, we express serious concern over the use of force, the death of civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Trieste, Italy, according to Interfax news agency.